In case you missed it, George Thompson got a mixed reception when he spoke before the City Council earlier this month about his grievance against the Fall River Police Department.

Thompson, 51, described his Jan. 6 run-in with Fall River Police Officer Thomas Barboza, who Thompson alleges was yelling and cursing on his cell phone during a street construction detail outside his Locust Street house.

Barboza arrested Thompson on grounds that he violated the state's wiretap statute by recording him on his cell phone. Barboza, in his police report, said Thompson was secretly recording him with a phone hidden under his left hand, but Thompson says he was recording him in plain sight the entire time.

Thompson says Barboza became irate when he spotted Thompson recording him from his front porch. Thompson says Barboza ran up to his house, called him a "(expletive) welfare bum" and threatened to "(expletive) you hard on paper."

Barboza, according to Thompson, also said: 'It's a federal offense what you're doing. You can't videotape me"

Thompson described his side of the story to the City Council, and said Barboza was on his cell phone for almost an hour, cursing and dropping "F bombs" so frequently that an older woman walking by looked at him.

Councilor Daniel Rego said he understood the complaint, but he struck a somewhat skeptical tone.

"As far as you telling me a police officer is not doing anything because he's on his phone, I totally disagree with you. He could have been talking with another officer about another situation," Rego said.

"I'm not sticking up for the officer, but in my opinion, dealing with the police all the time, I believe the approach to a police officer, they deserve all the respect they deserve... If you went up to him, said 'Can I have a word with you?' and pulled up to him quietly...

"The officer might have had a bad day," Rego said. "He's a human being."

Fall River Police Chief Daniel S. Racine said this week that Barboza admitted to swearing and yelling on his phone, and said that Barboza will be disciplined for not conducting himself to department standards.

Meanwhile, City Councilors Ray Mitchell and Leo Pelletier said the chief told them that Barboza should not have been on his cell phone during a street detail.

"The chief put it this way, 'We frown upon officers being on the phone except for emergencies while on detail,' because they want the officers to be vigilant as to what's going on," Mitchell said. Barboza is the subject of an internal affairs police investigation. Thompson told the Herald News that an internal affairs investigator told him that his iPhone - which contained his recording of Barboza - was erased two days after his arrest. Racine has said that if anyone deletes evidence, he or she will be disciplined, up to and including termination. Meanwhile, Thompson has a March 13 pretrial hearing in Fall River District Court. He is charged with unlawful wiretap and resisting arrest for also allegedly refusing to comply with Barboza's efforts to handcuff him. Thompson provided the Herald News with copies of the police incident report and other court documents that includes his 14-page Board of Probation record that shows he has been arraigned for prior arrests on charges that include breaking and entering, larceny, assault and battery, drug possession and motor vehicle offenses. Thompson's lawyer says he plans to file a motion to dismiss the wiretap charge on grounds that the police officer did not have probable cause to charge him with violating the state's wiretap statute.